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Released a year after the game proper, Artorias of the Abyss was included in the PC “Prepare to Die” edition of the game, and released later on consoles.

So far, only one commenter has showed up on my Artorias threads complaining that the content was “cut from the original game” and that From Software is nickel-and-diming its customers.

For my part, the many new hours of gameplay were worth every penny, though the black dragon Khalameet is one of the only bosses that made me think the game might be just a tiny bit too hard at times. My goodness, what a boss fight.

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I am totally bias in saying this, as Dark Souls DLC was the only DLC I purchased last year, I fully agree with you and I believe Artorias Of The Abyssis is how DLC should be.

One thing I noticed about Artorias Of The Abyss content is a lot of the enemies prepared you for the boss fights. The Stone Guardian Giant hammer bros attacked in the same manner as Artorias and Magnus ( you have to dodge a just as their attacks are about to hit you ). Khalameet however, there is no preparing for. Hopefully we will see more of this type of stuff in Dark souls 2.

Artorias of the Abyss DLC indeed makes the game feel 150% of its original content. They released it one year later after the original release with a bunch of weapons, boss and areas wich automatically means pretty much bunch of lore as well.

Yes, I know much of the Artorias of the Abyss DLC are originally being intended for the original release. I have the artbook and there is an artwork of Keeper and the Weird Crossbow guy as well. But they took it out from the last minute because they already running out of time. My evidence for this is the lack of Gwyn other four knights artwork in the book, which mean they’ve yet to finalize their design when the deadline sets in.

Even so, they release it after one year, not 1 week or 1 month after release. Did we already mention that the DLC did not split the online community too?

Khalameet is a beast the first time you fight him but that changes drastically after you figure out his pattern. same goes for every boss but i found the dlc bosses to be more affected to the “dark souls” rule.

Kalameet may be a difficult boss, but once you learn his patterns it’s still my favorite fight in the game to do. I almost don’t want to ever kill him because the boss is just so fun to do. The DLC area was probably the area that made me “grow-up” the fastest. Before I used to rely a lot on blocking, but after beating Manus I barely need to block anymore. Also Kalameet and Artorias made me realize how effective Halberds are in pve. (The halberd can hit the tail when he’s walking around.)

Although screw that damn telekinesis attack. My ears did not need: “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeee” so loudly.

I had a conversation where my friend made a consideration that the DLC was essentially From aiming to incorporate what they felt would appeal more to the western market. I’m not sure whether I agree but the content does feel like an evolution of the original game rather than an addition.

The Artorias fight especially feels as though it was crafted with love, whilst the Sanctuary Guardian was a shocking (pardon the pun) introduction to the content and Manus/Kalameet provided suitably epic battles, the Artorias fight represented the apex of what Dark Souls meant to me. Attention to detail, a different take on the boss fights compared to the main content and a true rite of passage for the character and the player.

Considering that the DLC boss fights universally take place in arena-like areas (the boss fights from the main content tended to have gimmicks in terms of area design), this is a great success.